SECTION OF SVIASK. 
163 
Sviask, a distance of nearly thirty versts. At Verkni Uslon 1 gypsum (a) occupies 
the lower portion of the cliff’ in thick sub-concretionary bands, with thin courses of 
fossiliferous white limestone. These are succeeded by impure limestone and shale, 
and these by bands of grey-coloured harder limestone ( b ), both strong-bedded and 
ffag-like, which rise to a height of seventy or eighty feet above the Volga, and are 
loaded with many fossils, including Productus Cancrini, Avicula Kazanensis (nob.), 
Av. cheratophaga (Schloth.), Modiola Pallasii (nob.). The limestone is surmounted 
(as upon the Kama) by red, green and white marls and sands (c), but they are 
here of a great thickness (150 to 200 feet). They contain thin courses of white 
tufaceous limestone, in one of the lower beds of which, only, we observed 
Modiolse. 
These overlying marls (c) occupy the whole of the upper portion of this promon- 
tory ; for on examining its western face, as you descend upon the river Sviaga, the 
same succession is offered as that which is exposed on the eastern side, or the 
Volga cliffs. The view near the little village of Shevalagheena, a little above 
Sviask, is indeed very striking, as it exposes, in a steep ravine, a thick mass of 
limestone, covered by upwards of 200 feet of finely laminated green, white and red 
marls and sands. Some beds of this limestone are cream-coloured, cavernous, 
and in parts magnesian ; others are grey, even lightish blue, and become, in parts, 
so siliceous as almost to resemble chalk-flints. Greenish -coloured calcareous flag- 
stones also occur, and near the summit of the calcareous mass is a thin course of 
foetid, dark-coloured, bituminous limestone passing into tufa. The fossils are the 
same as at Verkni Uslon, and among these the Avicula Kazanensis and the Pro- 
ductus Cancrini are the most abundant. 
Sviask, upon the river Sviaga, is built upon an outlying mass of the limestone, 
as represented in the preceding woodcut. The hills to the east or on the right- 
hand of the spectator are those to which we have just alluded, where the limestone 
forms the bottom of the cliffs ; whilst those on the left and in the distance, i. e. to 
with vigour in this beautiful and well-regulated city, in which we were so kindly received, and of which 
we retain the most vivid and agreeable recollections. Alas ! that many of its line buildings should have 
been recently destroyed by fire ! We rejoice, however, to learn that the calamity did not seriously affect 
the University, which contains most valuable records, antiquities and collections. Under the able direc- 
tion of M. Mussin Puschkin, seconded as he is by some of the ablest professors in the Russian em- 
pire, this establishment is destined to play a noble part in the advancement of knowledge among the 
population by which it is surrounded. 
1 Verkni Uslon is the post-station nearest to Kazan on the Moscow road, and just opposite the mouth 
of the river Kazanka, which flowing by Kazan, here empties itself into the great stream. 
